Tools Interoperability for Learning Management Systems

Abstract

E-learning has experienced an extraordinary growth over the last years. We have reached a point in time when most learning institutions have adopted an LMS as an integral element of their teaching and learning infrastructure. In parallel, the number of educational tools available for learning is increasing and keeps evolving. This variety means that it is not always easy or possible to add these educational tools into LMSs to enhance the learning process. It would, however, be in everyone´s interest for these tools to interact with the LMSs. To solve the problem of interoperability between LMS and learning tools, several interoperability standards define ways so that LMSs can interface with external learning tools in order to make them accessible from within the learning platform in an intuitive and concise way. This chapter is focused on the service-oriented approach to interoperability and specifically on the IMS LTI standard and the TSUGI hosting environment that aims to simplify the integration of external learning tools.